But ranching needs capital, too.

It must be a great life! They practically live in the saddle.

It's a glorious country!" "On the whole, then," said Mr.Rae, as if summing up the discussion, "a young man has better opportunities of making his fortune, so to speak, in the far West rather than in, say, Ontario." "I didn't speak of fortune, Mr.Rae,--fortune is a chance thing, more or less,--but what I say is this, that any young man not afraid of work, of any kind of work, and willing to stay with his job, can make a living and get a home in any part of Canada, with a bigger chance of fortune in the West." "All I say, Mr.Rae, is this," said Miss Brodie emphatically, "that I only wish I were a man with just such a chance as young Cameron!" "Ah, my dear young lady, if all the young men were possessed of your spirit, it would matter little where they went, for they would achieve distinct success." As he spoke Mr.Rae's smile burst forth in all its effulgent glory.
"Dear Mr.Rae, how very clever of you to discover that!" replied Miss Brodie, smiling sweetly into Mr.Rae's radiant face.

"And how very sweet of you--ah, I beg your pardon; that is--" The disconcerting rapidity with which Mr.Rae's smile gave place to an appearance of grave, of even severe solemnity, threw Miss Brodie quite "out of her stride," as Martin said afterward, and left her floundering in a hopeless attempt to complete her compliment.
Her confusion was the occasion of unlimited joy to "Lily," who was not unfamiliar with this facial phenomenon on the part of Mr.Rae.

"Oh, I say!" he cried to Dunn in a gale of smothered laughter, "how does the dear man do it?
It is really too lovely! I must learn the trick of that.
I have never seen anything quite so appallingly flabbergasting." Meantime Mr.Rae was blandly assisting Miss Brodie out of her dilemma.
"Not at all, Miss Brodie, not at all! But," he continued, throwing his smile about the room, "I think, Doctor Dunn, we have reason to congratulate ourselves upon not only a pleasant but an extremely profitable evening--ah--as far as the matter in hand is concerned.